Calls to Telstra customer service and complaints lines now free
Filed under: corporate, customer service, customers, free calls, news, Telstra CEO, thinking, trends
In another new customer service initiative, Telstra will make nearly 50 million service and support calls free of charge for Telstra customers.
Last month I posted a blog about new customer service initiatives including weekend tech service appointments. That blog generated many comments, complaints and feedback and I would like to thank everyone who took the time to write to me.
Today, I’m announcing another new initiative to improve the value we provide to customers and to help make it easier to connect with Telstra to resolve a customer service issue or complaint.
Millions of calls are made each year to our most frequently rung customer service numbers and, as of yesterday, calls to those numbers from Telstra services will be free of charge.
So, calls from a Telstra home phone or Telstra mobile, in Australia, to our general enquiry numbers for consumers and small businesses will be free as well as calls to our fault numbers, the BigPond helpdesk and our general service number for pre-paid mobile. Calls to activate and recharge pre-paid accounts can already be made without cost to customers.
125 111 Telstra residential mobile enquiries
132 203 Telstra residential faults
137 663 BigPond enquiries
133 933 BigPond Tech Support
125 8880 Prepaid enquiries
125 8888 Prepaid recharges
125 8887 Prepaid activations
132 000 Telstra Business enquiries
132 999 Telstra Business faults
Before we decided to launch this initiative, we researched a number of potential customer service improvements. This initiative came out as the most important when we asked people to tell us what they thought. I’m glad to make it a reality today but I’m also interested in your thoughts. We are very serious about wanting to hear from you. Really listening and acting upon customers’ feedback is a key part of the change we want our customers to experience.
More than two hundred people provided feedback to my blog last month announcing new customer service initiatives. The feedback offered us some encouragement but also gave us clear indications on what we must continue to improve upon. You told me that we can still do better and I agree.
Your views on our services, including our prices and products, have been passed onto the appropriate members of our teams.
Please keep posting your views, ideas and suggestions to me here on Telstra Exchange.
David
Mark not only is your request reasonable it is absolutely, totally and completely imperative that any company who hopes to prosper and remain in business must act in a manner that is acceptable to its customers.
I am persuaded that Telstra customer relations are on the improve (from a low base) and I do know of the serious and intense desire of David Thodey to take the necessary actions that will ensure happy and contented customers.
Hi Brendan,
Does appear as if finally our billing issues have been sorted after a case manager phoned me within 36h as you said. Although, it has taken a couple of phone calls further to sort out. We have just had our June bill and for the first time since December 2010, it it looks correct.
I still do not understand (and no one could sensibly explain to me) how it could take from January to June to fix this and result in us being overcharged by over $600 (now refunded). We have now cancelled our direct debit arrangement as I simply do not trust Telstra to get it right in the future. The whole process (except the calls after I contacted you via this blog), has been like wading through thick treacle. Such a total waste of my time.
After a protracted problem like mine it would be nice to get a formal letter of apology?! Does anyone senior review problem cases like mine or are they simply closed off as sorted out? If there is a review process, it would be nice if someone phoned back (or wrote a letter) and said I’m so and so, we stuffed up big time and here is how you contact my team if you have problems in the future. In my experience a genuine apology from someone senior smooths most ruffled feathers and and gives you the warm fuzzy feeling that you are a valued individual customer and not just an account number.
This is total rubbish. I have a landline and bigpond. However, I had to use my mobile phone (with Optus at present) to call Telstra Tech Support as I needed to sit in front of my pc. My wireless modem supplied by Telstra had broken. It took 6 lengthy phone calls interspersed by 3 visits to the Local Telstra shop to get a new modem supplied and then get it up and running. It has cost me $92.99 in phone calls and up to 10 hours of my time first doing my own troubleshooting and then trying to get something called customer service! I was always polite – perhaps I should have been rude? Out of the 6 people on the Cust service line only one knew what he was talking about and was actually very helpful – thanks Marlon.
The others clearly had not been trained properly and were following simple online or paper instructions on troubleshooting which I had already done. There seems to be no connection between the shops and customer service. When I got my new modem I found I needed to download new drivers. CS said the local shop would set it up on my pc free – the shop said it was a $20 fee. It is a bit much when one area of the organisation doesn’t know what the other is doing. Local shops should be able to replace wireless modems that are under warranty. I am going to send an invoice for the cost of phone calls and my time to Telstra CEO.
Everyone I spoke to was polite but I did not get the help I needed. As a pensioner caring for a spouse with health problems and family all over the world – my online connection is vital – being offline for 2 weeks is just not acceptable in this day and age.
Hi Barbara. I understand our frustration at having to spend so much time on the phone to support, however your mobile is with Optus and calls from a Telstra home phone or Telstra mobile, in Australia, to our general enquiry numbers for consumers and small businesses are free but not from other mobile providers.
I’d be glad to hep you now or in the future and I can have someone call you. You can comment to me here or use this form to send me your account and a contact number so I can get you help from a local support person.
Just to let you know how dissapointed i was when I bought my 65 year old next door neighbour a Telstra pre paid broadband and tried to activate it for his birthday.
I spent 40mins on my landline with no responce I thought as I was not with Telstra they were not answering so my neighbour comes home who has a Telstra mobile we tried to activate on his mobile , same story (whats going on)
If Telstra wants to get back old customers like myself they need to get there act together!!! instead of all the old BS
Not happy Colin from Wembley Perth
Brendan, attention David Thodey. On a visit to the Gold Coast today called in to the Telstra Pacific Fair Shop to get a top up for my TTT. Natasha, the adorable Telstra lady asked how my tab was going and I told her it was almost out of battery power. Natasha told me to let he have the tab while my wife and I contuned our shopping and she would charge the tab for us. This is the sort of service customers must get if Telsta is to regain its number one position in the eyes of the Australian public. Good work Natasha.
hi brendon , I am still having problems with telstra, since ive been dealing with the tio we had a resolution but telstra arent upholding there part of the resolution now i have to go back to the tio, to reslove my frustation, which will take another 3 months, And yes we are still having problems with the wireless home phone connection, sometimes there is no dial tone and also the phone has an echo when using the phone. I am not a customer of Telstra, I am a Victim of Telstra , Regards Dale
Hello Dale. I’ve just asked if there is anything more that we can do in the current situation. Should hear back Monday. When matters go to the TIO there are many more processes to follow, and I know this is frustrating as it often takes more time to come to a resolution.
An interesting response to Dale’s comment.
It is obvious that a response to the particular problem would not be appropriate if it is under investigation by the TIO.
The response reads like a warning not to take matters to the TIO or a resolution will be take much longer – some may see that as a warning
I recently paid a deposit on a rental property and rang to organise home phone and internet only to find out that the house is on Pair Gains Service. If I’ve understood correctly, this means that more than one phone service runs off the one copper phone line and due to the line being shared I can’t have a home phone & broadband package as it would be far too slow for ADSL – so I have the option of either going slower-than-dial-up speed (which must be incredibly slow) or to go wireless internet which means I’ll be paying a lot more money to get a lot less data allowance and I still won’t have a home phone.
I don’t understand why the phone lines were set up this way. Is it just a way of saving time and money on cables? I have also been told (amongst many other things) that if the PGS is upgraded or removed all will be fine.
Is this correct? If so, how does one go about doing this?
If not, how about some legal advice in regards to getting my deposit back as this PGS thing was not disclosed to me prior to me paying the deposit.
Does anyone read these messages? I can’t see any responses. I would telephone but don’t have a landline at all at the moment.
Rachael, Can you email me back or use this form with a contact number and your account details so I can have someone call you.
I am also in a similar situation to Rachel. After I had a contract with Bigpond for two years for ADSL, and following ongoing phone problems for a period of time, I was told that we were on a pair gain line and we should not have been able to support ADSL. AFter my contract expired I went to another carrier and paid half the amount ($30 per month compared to $60) for the same abysmal speed. When I changed I was advised that I would not be able to get 512kb plan that i wanted, as the line did not support it (they ran tests), so again i was stuck with the 256Kb plan, which i have never been close to getting. I have run various speed tests and never got over 190kb. I’m now investigating wireless broadband. I have tested the telstra next G wireless dongle (on a prepaid) and I was getting a signal (this was about a month ago with speeds up to 641kbs). In the last weeks my next G mobile phone signal has become very unstable in our area and am often not able to receive a signal in the house any longer. I was forced to go with Telstra next G because I was not able to receive a signal in my house with any other carrier. Now even Telstra signal is no longer reliable. Has something happened to the signal strength? I’ve spoken to someone else in our area who is complaining of the same thing. As i live in a rural area of Central Queensland on a street with only 6 residences i am not holding my breath regarding the NBN and an improved line speed/service. So where does that leave me? Is there any provision for financial assistance or rebates for customers not able to receive a minimum ADSL speeds on the existing antiquated infrastructure to investigate alternatives, (if in deed there are any) and not able to receive an adequate signal strength to go wireless? There is so much competition out there with other carriers, but I am not even able to consider them for lack of signal.
Heres a suggestion that will save Telstra an amazing amount of money- but first let me give you some background. We have a broken pit in our street, with a Tesltra yellow barrier around it. Its been there around 3 years. I emailed Telstra to ask them to fix it. Its become a safety hazard to young children. I have just got off the phone after my 8th call backwards and forwards, them calling me, them losing the job number and having to resubmit etc etc. 8 calls!!! to fix a pit!!!. I finally called them back again but my ” case manager” had left for the day. I asked why I needed to speak to someone again, I just wanted it fixed. The person, who wasnt my case manager”, said my case manager needed to speak to me. Why, I asked. So she could ask me if I wanted the job escalated to another department so it would get fixed sooner!!!! I had to call her back in business hours to tell her that??!! After 5 minutes of standard statements around Telstra’s normal business hours, I asked ” Cant you just note on the computer that I give approval for it to be escalated? Yes, I can, she said. and that was that. Why didnt she tell me that in the first place? My God, how many people did it take, how much money did it cost, how much of my time did one simple request take? I say the pit is a danger to the kids in the street? They will be adults and moved out of home before its fixed! Need to know how to save money? Stop this bureaucratic garbage.
Hi David. Sorry you had to endure this merry go around. I’ve asked a local rep to double check that this has in fact been actioned as a priority and I’ve asked for someone to call you to confim this for you.
Have been waiting for close to 6 weeks to get service. Each time a order is put – there is a wrong number or a wrong address and they keep putting new orders.
I keep ringing them after a couple of days and they keep postponing the installing and give me new dates.
It is so frustrating!!!
You are getting a new customer and at the beginning of the service this is the treatment you give them.
Hail Telstra
Though I can see that my problem is nowhere near as bad as others’, I am so frustrated with dealing with telstra customer service, even though the problem was finally resolved by Ben in tech support. My adsl was disconnected and the account closed. I spoke with numerous people and was told it was a systematic error. About 10 hours spent on the phone over two days, some representatives were helpful, others just transferred me to another department without a reason or even which department it was. Why was my account closed in the first place? Why do I have bad credit, forcing me to pay ahead of time even though I did not owe any money? What have I done to deserve such distrust from this company? I initially thought that this was for a t-box and t-hub that I had returned. But I followed instructions and called to return them within the allowed ten days. One bag for the return was late but I followed up on it and eventually shipped it back. Then, I disputed the charges and was told I would be given credit for the charges for these devices. Then they showed up on my next three bills. I called a month ago and again was told I would be given credit. This time my adsl was disconnected and reconnected, but I thought that would be the end of it. Two days ago, my adsl was closed, and one person told me it was in connection with this disputed charge, though subsequent representatives assured me that I was given the credit and this was a systematic error. Why such a disconnect between the billing and credit management departments, and even representatives from the same department? And as far as I know, I was not given any heads up about problems with my accounts, otherwise I would have taken immediate action to resolve the problem. This is the first time I am making this type of comment anywhere, thank you for reading.
I have been trying to resolve a complaint with Telstra that has been dragging on since February 2011. We had to purchase prepaid phone credits to continue to speak with the complaints department and we are paying almost $1 per minute to talk to them….some hundreds of dollars later and they now want another 3 weeks to “investigate”…..is this what Telstra calls customer service? We have medical, safety and personal reasons why we are demanding our post paid phone service be reconnecting immediately. Even the TIO can’t seem to get them moving.
Hi Gay, Please use this form to send me your account number and a contact number and I’ll have someone look into this for you.
This is what happened after Telstra moved it’s call centre to the phillipines:
Police warning over computer fix scam
Posted April 28, 2011 12:05:00
Tasmanians are being cautioned about a computer scam.
Police have received about half a dozen complaints of phone calls offering to clear computer viruses and requesting remote access to personal computers
Detective Senior Sergeant Luke Manhood says the scammers have targeted other Australian states as well.
“People usually sound to have an Indian accent, claiming that the person’s been identified as having a virus on their computer and offering to remotely fix that issue,” he said.
“Then people give instructions on how to enable the remote access on that computer and also ask for credit card details for the service they’re allegedly performing.”
After I threatened Telstra with a report to ASIO these scammers stopped calling me. They also have a phillipino accent which I suspect is the call centre Telstra uses. Either way Telstra will be reported to ASIO for being a security risk.
Hi, Please see this comment for important information on this common scam.
Good try – fail.
This sort of scam has been going on for over fifteen years, and possibly longer.
This has absolutely NOTHING to do with Telstra moving call centres anywhere.
Perhaps most people don’t know, but the best defence against these sort of scam attacks, are people going to evening colleges, night schools, TAFE and universities, and attending basic, or “introduction to computer” courses.
The better that people are educated about how their own computers work, the better it is for everybody.
I have been pushing this for my clients, and I have been able to reduce their down time by almost 50%.
Get a life. Life happens, anyway. Get educated.
WOW, it seems like a lot of bitching happening for very bored individuals. Well good luck with that.
I actually have a complaint if anyone wants to read.
Telstra/Bigpond are being big meanies. The telephone exchange at Gorokan NSW Central Coast is overloaded to near extreme and they have no plans to upgrade it any further. This effects a lot of people and small business. Tonight may connection dropped to that of an ISDN speed. About 12 to 18 kbps download. Yes virtually useless. The more people that are on hte net the worse it is. The know they need ot put in rows and rows of new DSLAMS as they admited it but wont do it or say if it will ever happen. So my 1500/256 connection i pay $70 p/month for is not even a mickey hair of what it should be. My ISP TSN INTERNET have been siding with me to get them to pull the finger out and fix it up. This area is definatley not small and growing rapidly. They said a year or so ago they wont upgrade it to ADSL2 either. Well i can live with that but not with dial up speeds.
Now so far they said they fixed it twice, well thats twice it hasnt worked either. i think they want me to just go away and shutup. Umm not going to happen Mr PMG/TELECOM/TELSTRA meanies. You actually have a documented duty of care on the exchange (that telstra worded up mind you) and it simply states that you will keep monitoring any exchage and immediatley act on upgrading or replaceing equipment in exchanges found to be outdated or defective. Well your own linesman have let you know that its way too small and you still havent done anything.
Some day this stuff i put out there might get to the right people. So far it ahs got to phone support only and htey all agree its an issue but have no idea who to escalate it to. I am sure we all know what a useless effort it can be getting bogged down on the telstra/bigponf support, being put to the wrong person then transferred to someone else after already chatting for 30 minutes. Then to find out the new person you are talking to doesnt know anything so they through you to another, then ooops, you get disconnected. Yes this isnt all the time but a very lot and it is a well know trait of their support when it begins to get a little difficult.
Anyway the exchange is broken and old and the owners wont fix it but they continue to charge rent to other ISP’s at a high costs to use this so called high speed broadband.
They really havent changed at all since the days of PMG. Remember when they drove around in those old red Kombie vans.
Well if someone knows someone who knows the kid that walks the wifes dog who lives down the road from a bloke who knows the guy that can fixs this. Thats probably the only way to get it done i think. If you have got this far in reading this i thankyou very much
Hi Greg, Thanks for taking the time to share your experience and I will ensure that this does get into the right hands and can I have your contact number please.. Brendan
I’d like to second what Greg said. Honestly what does it take for Telstra to fulfill it’s obligations here?
Gorokan exchange has had an unuseable internet connection (both adsl and adls2+) for over 12 months!!!
I have a small business and I’ve been getting service refunds for my appalling connection for the last 6 months. It isn’t even dialup speed.
I’m seriously considering legal action and I am not alone.
Dear Emma, Thank you for your email regarding ADSL congestion in Gorokan NSW.
Broadband, and in particular ADSL, is provided by a range of technologies in Gorokan. I am pleased to say that a project to relieve the congestion by upgrading the backhaul is scheduled for completion in late September 2011.
Currently, there are sufficient ADSL 1 services available from the Gorokan exchange which allows customers to receive speeds on their broadband service of up to 8Mbps.
Thank you again for your email and I trust that this reply has been of some assistance.
Anyone else been scammed with rubbish premium sms from Dialect Interactive. What the hell are you doing Telstra? You know these people are a scamming company – just google their name and you will see a million and one complaints and yet you still allow these companies access to your customers and to rack up costs on innocent people’s bills. And no… before you ask, I didn’t join a competition on TV or by email or sms and I never received nor responded to an sms from any random companies. They only seem to have found my mobile number since I changed from Optus to Telstra – big mistake that was. Then you have the cheek to tell me to contact the Dialect who just hang up on people. Seriously… where is this customer service you keep telling me about, where is the refund of these unauthorised funds – where is your proof that I consented to these charges???? Oh hang on, yes I see… I can google and Telstra is “in bed” with this company. Now it makes sense. Why do you not protect your customers. I am a pensioner and cannot afford these types of charges… Tighten your reins – you really offer the worst service of any of the phone companies.
Hi Samantha. You can block premium SMS from your phone by calling us on 132200 for postpaid or 125 8880 for pre-paid. It’s also worth looking at 19 SMS – Your guide to mobile premium services.
Nicole from Telstra in Victoria rang. She cannot help either.
Reckon this one is in hte too hard basket for everyone Brendan
Dear Brendan,
Thanks for getting back to me. But what exactly does \Broadband, and in particular ADSL, is provided by a range of technologies in Gorokan\ mean? This seems to be the standard Telstra comment I’ve had it from 2 people – exact wording and all. It’s meaningless! The only technologies in Gorokan are provided by Telstra.
I’ve also had this exact wording provided before to me \Currently, there are sufficient ADSL 1 services available from the Gorokan exchange which allows customers to receive speeds on their broadband service of up to 8Mbps.\
Why would you say this, when I’m making a complaint and you have confirmed there is exchange congestion? I can ASSURE you 100% that the ADSL1 service in Gorokan is NOWHERE near sufficient. 8Mbps I have never had, nightly I’m getting 24-50 kbit/s speeds (that is when I can get a steady connection and not one that is continuously dropping out).
Honestly why does Telstra sprout these ridiculous statements? It’s about time Telstra started treating the users as equal as the shareholders.
Just because you said these statements does not make them true. It’s like you are trying to sugar coat the bad news. Here’s feedback for the company:
Tell us the truth when the problem arises, and then give us an honest eta and stick to it. It’s that simple.
Emma, I’m surprised your comment was even published. It doesn’t take much for the self-regulating moderator to delete comments that pose question that are too hard. It has happended to me several times. Perhaps you won’t even get to see this one!!
But simply, we shouldn’t have to use this forum for our concerns if Telstra Customer Service were doing their job.
It is not possible that the Gorokan exchange can handle ADSL1 at present at all. All the DSLAMS are overloaded and they already admittd that to myself and TSN ISP located at port macquarie.I have been patched into every DSLAM so far and not much changes
So whatever they told you Brendan i would take with a grain of salt. I hope you are right about September though.
With the attitude they have been showing and the lack of anyone to help (not that is any telstra employees fault) i sincerely doubt it
I think its all about this Australian Broadband Network that will never work anyways..
If it goes on too much longer then telstra will loose around 10k per month from the two businesses i support. I approve all phones and data and our contract is up in a few months for both of them. Wont make any difference of course but i will feel better. Gee I am sounding a touch nasty there arent i.
BY THE WAY THANKS FOR TRYING BRENDAN. THATS ALL A BLOKE CAN ASK. AS YOU DID GIVE IT A GOOD SHOT
Hi,
After moving to Brisbane in January of this year, the first thing I did was engage Telstra to supply me with a landline and broadband and included with that was an international calling bundle to allow me to call overseas cheaply (which I have to do often). With the exception of the first bill, every single one since has been incorrect as apparently “back office have removed your international calling bundle”. Nobody could explain why this was happening but every month my bills would be in excess of $500, sometimes nearer $800 and every month I would have to go into my local Telstra store and have this corrected and refunded. I eventually cancelled the package when I moved home but was told I had to pay $405 as this was my outstanding balance. I have never received a bill for this amount, despite repeated requests (customer’s like to know what they’re being charged for Tesltra!!) and have since received a final demand from a debt collection agency for this amount. Without a doubt THE worst service I have ever received in 15 years of home and mobile phone use. Telstra, sort it out, your service is utterly appalling.
Well I don,t even know where to start, in April we got a call from a company contracted out to telstra called TGA ( must suggest u give them a miss) really nice girl I chatted with and we needed new plan, well 5 months later I have never had so much trouble, nothing that was promised has happened and plus they have split up our bill and now we are receiving more bills per month, with the wrong name on the wrong mobile phone, so much for a good bundle account. But please don’t try to talk with anyone at telstra about a bundle account it all has to be well is this for mobile, land line, Internet etc blah blah blah. I have tried to get the voice recording from TGA well they won’t give to me because telstra own it lol, tried to get from telstra, well run run run run run around!!!!!! Finally got on to TIO ,just hope they can help. Have had triple heart by-pass maybe for there mess ups they would like to cause me another:(
Pretty mad about telstra’s bigpond internet dongle service. I pay a great deal more than my mates who are on vodaphone, virgin and optus, I get a much higher signal but im only getting like 20kb/s. When i call up customer service the say that it’s my “AVG Anti virus which is causing the problem”. they asked me to turn it off so i pretended to turn it off and told them it was off and 5 seconds later well what do you know im back up to getting 2-5 mega bytes per second. when I paid the extra dollars I thought i’d be getting better speeds and customer service 100% of the time instead of 10% of the time…
Where does one start…New management, new plans, new oprions and applications..same bad service….customer support and advice. For those in THUB land..best of luck, you return it with telstra form…and dont hear for 6 months. You ring ring ring…get bounced around state to state shop to shop..no-one wants responsibility. Had enough, so refund. No not that simple….more calls finally 63 calls later..someone who takes the initiative and records a refund. This is good…until the next bill…not only has the refund been added back onto it, but also the mobile bill – thats quadruple dipping. And we still dont have the THUB. Now whilst this is in the process of being sorted out..as in previous cases, threats of disconnection. Can no-one correlate the issues. I dont have a THUB..Telstra or their agent have it for repairs…I have a telstra work order number…I also have a bill for use of the equipment and the service..can noone understand…in this world today…you dont pay for what you dont have, you cvant be charged for what you dont use and you cant penalise or use as blackmail on something that isnt related…like a phone line/internet service. OK…so this is bad…now we add a 24 month plan cost…WHAT FOR…I dont have a plan I dont have a telstra facility and I am losing any service….and heres the catch…under australian law…if after fair and reasonable effort and advice no action is taken, the CUSTOMER CAN CHARGE..and guess what….for no equipment, for no service, for no support…in other words I have got a thing…I am going to cahrge Telstra for the cost associated with it….and use their own approach.
Hi Dave, I can see you’ve had a bunch of negative experiences with us lately. I’d like to change that. I’ve organised for a local team to look into this and give you a call. This can take several days. Brendan
Hi Brendan
I would like to thank Telstra for their perfect psychic abilities. Once again my landline has gone down just in time for us to have a medical emergency at home, and having no mobile coverage I was unable to contact emergency services. Instead I put my daughter in the car and drove her 15 km to the nearest ambulance station where I was able to call emergency services. The on call ambulance staff member attended to us while waiting on a Paramedic and ambulance to arrive. My daughter was then taken to the Royal Brisbane Hospital due to the level of concern for her health. This is the third health scare we have had when our landline has been down. Even though our landline was back up and running a couple of days later the concern I have is that it goes down at all, putting my family at risk in the process. I have been previously advised by Telstra to get a booster antenna for my mobile phone in these circumstances, but having looked into this it is actually illegal. If Telstra are not prepared to put a decent and reliable service into my area (only 1 hr from Brisbane), what options do I have for keeping my family safe?
Hi Karen. I have actioned this as a priority. A specialist team will be contacting you today and investigating the matter. Brendan
Thank you Brendan. I was contacted by a Telstra exec today and advised that my situation would be thoroughly investigated. I am expecting an update mid next week as to why my service keeps going down and what can be done about it.
As a Registered Nurse even I find it scarey when there is a medical emergency at home and I have no way of contacting emergency services for assistance when I know that it is a potentially high risk situation, hence the reason why I drove my daughter to the nearest ambulance station to get the assistance she needed.
I do appreciate the call I received today and look forward to working with Telstra to create a safer environment for me and my family.
Telstra the most inefficient phone services in Australia, absolutely hopeless and stealing customers money
Hi Joe, Is there something in particular that prompted you to post? If you’d like some help, Drop me a line using this form.
After having our phone disconnected in February for an overbilling error in excess of $900, we finally got the dispute settled and got phone and internet reconnected in late September. living aboard a yacht in far north QLD, we rely heavily on weather from bom.gov.au. We honestly do not feel that customer service has improved at all. Like many others, we will never pay by direct debit again.
Having Free calls is restoration of what Telstra had. But the issue that makes me almost cry is hearing customers on the radio saying they having problems with the Telstra customer service ( it appears based overseas ) representative providing useless service and not sending the call back to Australia.
This is NO GOOD for Telstra and Australia.
The call was on 2GB this afternoon.
Calling customer service is really a waste of time….. They dont seem to know how to solve a problem….. I had problem connecting to internet when I first got it and now again to upgrade the plan…… Its really frustrating!!!!! Results are guaranteed to be NOT delivered as promise…..resulting in another lengthy phone explaining everything all over again!!!!
Hi Siti, If you still need help please send me your accont and contact number using this form.
We have a problem at the moment with not being able to ring out. I live in the Warners Bay area N.S.W and I get a recorded message saying that there is a problem and to try again later. I have a dial tone on my phone, my internet is working but that’s it. My mother’-in-law has the same problem (she lives about 5 minutes away). My daughter sent me a message saying that my phone is engaged. Can someone help. I have no way of contacting Telstra.
Hi Tracey, If you still need help please send me your account number and an alternative contact number if you have one. you can reply to the personal email I just sent you or use this form. Brendan
Callers saying they are from Telstra ready to offer a BIG DEAL for landline customers.
They say they(Steve) are calling from a call centre 66 Albert Street South Melbourne.
Facts do not match up.
Call standards is very low. Noisy and hard to understand.
Call cutting in and out.
Suspect they are using VOIP and call from overseas call centre.
They call you Mr and your first name. In my case Mr Grahame.
It appears they do not know your age as he asked a question are you over 75.
They used the statement that your average landline costs is so much. I checked and they quoted twice actual value.
I called Telstra and they stated that NO CALL was made from TELSTRA.
Why are they allowed to say they are working for TELSTRA?
Is some information being given to these companies to take customers from Telstra and give to overseas companies?
I have had this type of call more than twice. How many have been hooked.
If you DO NOT ACT, TELSTRA will loose its customers.
Return of the Telstra T-HUB
Did this unit get back to you via the replied paid bag. I paid for registered Post on the article but AUSTRALIA POST FAILED in the process. With the number I was given I had a number of issues but it failed to show arriving at your depot.
I have had a couple of follow ups with no success.
I can supply details if required.
this spam was in my inbox yesterday, complete with telstra logo at the top of the email.
Dear Customer,
This e-mail has been sent to you by Telstra BigPond to inform you that we were unable to process your most recent payment of bill.This might be due to either of the following reasons:
1. A recent change in your personal information. (eg: billing address, phone)
2. Submitting incorrect information during bill payment process
3. An inability to accurately verify your selected option of payment due to an internal error within our processors.
Due to this, to ensure that your service is not interrupted, we request you to confirm and update your billing information today by clicking here.
If you have already confirmed your billing information then please disregard this message as we are processing the changes you have made.
Kind regards,
Telstra BigPond Billing Department, 2011. All rights reserved
I can’t believe I live 10 Mins from the Airport and 20 Mins from the Sydney CBD and we are surrounded by RIMs at KOGA-DA114.
Which genius didn’t install enough copper pairs for DSL for over 500 units??
KOGA-DA114 is not on the list of Top Hat upgrades and I suspect Telstra don’t want to spend money with NBN coming.
A top hat upgrade would pay for itself in 3 months as most residents would sign up for phone, Internet and foxtel through ADSL2+.
The irony of this is that there is a Telstra shop downstairs and it’s heavily promoting Telstra 4G LTE. Which is basically confirmation that upgrades will never happen.
Is it because we have a local Liberal member and not one of Gillard’s independent stooges that we are being forgotten about?
Damn we are like less than 1km from the exhange. Surely the upgrade wouldn’t cost that much !!
I feel for you, Patrick. A significant portion of my suburb in Melbourne (1000′s of people) are all on RIMs with no possibility of cables. If NBN is to succeed, I hope Telstra does not have any control over it. It will surely fail to reach its potential.
Nearly every day I can be assured that my Internet goes from ADSL1 8mbit speeds, to a less than 1500kbit and that the response times go from 40ms up to 1000ms and time outs galore. All this happens from 3pm up to as late as 10 -11pm at night.
It makes it unusable for my son to play games after school on xboxlive and anything I want to download makes it feel like i might as well have a dial-up account.
I am on the Nundle exhange but can tell if it is the exchange of the back haul for tamworth that is the problem. Telstra have not fixed this for months on end, so I can be assured they will still do stuff all now that the NBN is happening.
Similar issue to Steve above, however I’m in Hobart. I’m on ADSL2+ 20mb/s, and have been for over 2 years. For most of the time, I got speeds ranging from 9mb/s to 13mb/sm which I considered fair. As this year has progressed, it’s got worse and worse, to the point that now I’m lucky to reach 1.5mb/s. I know it’s a Bigpond thing, not Telstra per se, but c’mon, that’s terrible – to continue charging me for something that can’t be delivered – and I have no reason to believe it wont keep getting worse, given the track history!
I just checked through a VPN and remote controlling a PC, I pinged the nexthop that I have from home which was going upward of 1000ms and timeouts, that the PC on the VPN was getting to my next hop at 5ms per second every second.
It must be the exchange or backhaul and not the next hop router that is the problem.
I live less than 60k from Melbourne GPO, yet cannot get landline ADSL. Hence I’m subjected to wireless, and therein the problems start. I cannot connect for up to six hours EVERY DAY from about 3.30pm. Tonight for instance, it dropped out at 4pm and came back on about twenty minutes ago. During my last complaint call six weeks ago, I was advised a new tower is being commissioned and all will be improved by 7Dec11. Well, I hate to let you know that it’s now 11Dec11 and I’m still waiting. So I rang Customer Service to find out what was going on. After being on hold for 25 minutes, I was hung up on. Calling back, Rachel from Residential Billing (I didn’t call them) assured me I would not be put on hold again. So after being put straight on hold, I waited for over an hour and you guessed it, was hung up on again. Calling back again, I was actually told to ring 132200 if I want to complain. This was the number I had called in the earlier attempts, and my bill will confirm this. So here I am now, after 10.30pm and finally able to access the account I pay so frightfully much for and I ask myself “Why?”.
Can anyone answer me?
Hi Mick. I’ve asked for someone to investigate and give you a call. I’ve also asked for an update as to the improvement to the tower. Brendan
Well Brendan, I did receive a call from “Emma” in Customer service some time after you posted your comment. Her call was to introduce herself and to advise me that she is sending me an SMS of her contact details, should I feel the need to call her……I’m still waiting for this SMS. Further, I had to wait until 10.30pm to send this comment, as my connection still fails EVERY DAY.
Hence I would ask you:
Has Emma forgotten my mobile number?
Am I to receive the SMS at some point?
Is there any update to my situation?
Did you get any update on the tower/s?
Do I continue to use this forum for updates?
Needless to say, the customer service performance is still in keeping with what I expected – zero.
Hi,
I have just recently lost my job and I am struggling to pay my bills and I have explained my situation to Telstra and have been asking for extensions and payment arrangements. I only pay a small fee of 49.95 per month on my internet bill, I can not afford t disconnect the internet as it helps me to look for jobs. Telstra are still incurring me with the 15.77 account charges and credits aka (late fees) can they still do this? As apposed to my bill normaly being 49.95 per month it has now escalated to 65.72 per month and I am struggling to pay it at the normal rate. I am trying very hard to make sure the payments are made on the arrangement dates specified during our calls. However I don’t think it’s fair I still incur a late fee simply becuase I am in a disadvantaged situation???? Is there something I can do about these late fees, otherwise I will have to get the internet cut off and that means it will take me allot longer to find a job and I have 2 children to take care of.
Hi Kristy, sorry to hear you are struggling, been there myself. I’ll need a contact number and your account details please to get someone to look into this for you. You can use this online form. Brendan
Almost on a weekly basis I get calls from a private number saying they are from Tele–shish and that my good records earn me much lower long distance call rate. I ask who they are and all I can get is that they are calling from Melbourne.
From the start I suspect it is another carrier wanting business.
I called Telstra and the answer system is VERY POOR. When I got through to an operator I got results but the QUALITY of CALL was VERY POOR. The voice asking the question at the end was 1000% BETTER.
You have very serious problems with the way you answer these calls. How many CUSTOMERS do you LOOSE.
I did have another question to ask but I did not because I would have had trouble understanding the answer from the other end.
The NBN wants to send us back to the old Magneto phone days. Where customers had their own tall 2×1.5 volt batteries. ( I just waiting for the hand generator to come on the scene. ) These were eliminated by the CB exchanges ( common battery ) because of the problems of the magneto exchange setup. They gave many advantages.
The NBN setup should be different.
Is the call quality above getting us prepared for the future.
Hi
I too have had the run around from Telstra regarding a serious complaint. I was concerned that my details had been breached in the recent security breach from Telstra/Bigpond. A lot of calls resulted in a tweet from me about how useless Telstra was. This resulted in action.
I received an email from the Social Media Team and told someone would call me to resolve the issue. I received this call from a Subject Matter Expert who told me that my details had definitely not been release. Wow, what a relief.
The very next day, the same “expert” called to say that his original statement was not “entirely accurate” and that my details had been breached. Well, naturally I was concerned seeing as I have silent lines. I asked to be released from my Bigpond/Landline bundles to move to another service provider. Telstra’s response “You will need to pay the early termination charges”. OK, so Telstra breaches my privacy and then charges me for it??
Complaint to the TIO results in the same response. Got nowhere with that. Rang the TIO again who advised that they would launch a formal investigation.
Call to Senator Conroy’s office (Minister for Communication& my local member) was more handy. I think I may get a response. However, I don’t understand why I should be going to all this trouble in order to safeguard my privacy? Isn’t that Telstra’s job?
Complaint to the ACCC and the Privacy Commissioner promises to provide reasonable results. Lets see shall we?
Hi Adam, Sorry to hear you’ve had mixed messages in response to these interactions with us. I sent you an email.
Thanks Brendan. A far more helpful Case Manager has called me today and we are working together on a mutually acceptable resolution. I must say, this is a welcome change in attitude and tone compared to my previous interactions.
Will keep you updated!
Adam you are not alone Teltra are quick to charge there customer when the mistake is on there side. A customer should be allowed to get out of a plan without being charge if they have a valid reason.
I am disappointed. A week ago I signed up with Telstra after more than 10 years with Vodafone. I was happy with my first few days so excitedly switched my sister over too, using the simple Telstra online order form to do so. In the process of making the switch for her I called the number provided to me on the official Telstra Digital letter that came with the phone to port over her number from another carrier. The number provided was 13 63 02. I INNOCENTLY assumed as this was a Telstra general enquiry line it would be a free call. But was shocked and stunned to see a $13.00 charge on my recent activity list. I can’t believe I was charged $13.00 to call a Telstra customer care number to undertake a process that I filled out when I processed the order online anyway.
Wanted to share my feedback so that the process can be improved for others.
Why ask for this information during the Telstra online ordering process when you just ask us to call a (charged) number once the phone has been received to do the same?! Inefficient and disappointing. Not a happy start to my Telstra relationship.
Hi Kristie, Thank you for your feedback. Appreciate it taked time to share your experience. Can you send me your account and contact details so I can ask someone to call you. Brendan
Hi Brendan,
If you contact me outside this board I am happy to provide my account number – not sure why I should be comfortable to give this publicly. I also don’t want to publish my email address here either but this form asks for it as a mandatory so you should have it. Appreciate an email from a direct address so that I can have my issue resolved.
Thank you!
I’ve sent you an email.
Recently paid $30 on my mothers mobile phone at my local Telstra shop. Got a message from Telstra that the $30 dollars would only last 1 month. Tried to call my local Telstra shop but found it impossible to have them pick up the phone. All problems solved when I got expert help from Lhui, Telstra operator in Manilla who identified the problem that the mobile had been categorized as a Tablet on Telstra files. Lhui was brilliant and excellent with perfect phone manners. Thanks Lhui.
I had a problem with my billing circle which did not end and i got no help but very unhelpful billing service managers. One apologised and offered to give me credit which has never reflected on my account to date.
To me it sounds like the customer care staff have been trained to say “hallo mum” or “do you mind me calling you ..”. “im sorry that you are not happy with the service” etc. It’s very annoying especially when i have to call 2-3 times in a week for my calls and data billing circle to be check and corrected. I’m a very unhappy cutomer.
Hello Swift. Sorry to hear you’ve had ongoing issues with your billing. If you send me your account and contact details I’ll have a local billing specialist take a look at it and give you a call. Brendan
Recently both our landline and broadband failed and i had no joy trying to call telstra from a phone box. thinking it would be a free call i had no money. the experience was very frustrating! jill
Is the technical support number still free?
Thanks:-)
Wendy
Hi Wendy, Yes, free to call from Telstra landlines and mobile phones.
Hi Brendan
I really need some help on my mobile billing account. I been charged “Pay as you go” while I have signed a 1.5 gb allowance. I updated my mobile Nov 2010 and since then my mobile account been overcharged and now I kept calling the billing dept to fix my account but i been told that Dec will be fix but Jan 2012 comes and until now still the same issue. Who is the right person can help me with this issue. I get my internet , foxtel , landline, 2 mobile phone and 1 prepaid all in Telstra and this kind of service I am getting from the operator on the phone. Promises that they will help me aligning my account but never happen. I been told by the complaint dept Manish that he will call me back within 24 hours since 28 Dec I haven’t heard from him at all. I called him again but he told me that he still investigating the issue. I told him that the only issue is the “pay as you go” mobile data usage. When I gonna get my account right? It so frustrating
Hi Vicky. Thanks for reaching out to me. I’ll get a local specialist team to investigate and give you a call. Brendan.
Hey guys,
Just thought I’d share my experience. Currently on the Mandurah exchange in Western Australia and I’ve been having nothing but issues with it for the past 5 years. A bit of back story; we had some intense congestion around 5 years ago that made doing anything on the internet nearly impossible. Telstra (after 12 months of complaints from basically everyone, there’s a forum on whirlpool about it) finally scheduled a date to come out and upgrade our exchange so we’d finally be able to get full, or incredibly decent, speeds.
Now we fast forward to today, for the last 6-7 months it has been the same, it’s slowly getting worse and it’s becoming unbearable. There’s absolutely nothing my ISP can do, no ones ISP has any power what-so-ever to help with this problem. We’ve been told by telstra to wait it out until the NBN reaches our CBD. There will be no upgrades until that time, which could be months/years. Is this a joke or something? Does Telstra really NOT give a crap, at all. I get I’m not a customer of Telstra, but for them to just do absolutely NOTHING to save money it’s no wonder people seem to be constantly disappointed with that company.
So now, I’ll sit back, watch my peak hour speeds slow down to a crawl AGAIN and wait for the NBN to roll through, looks like i’ll be waiting a few years.
Telstra is by far the worst company I have ever dealt with. They are continously overcharging me. We have a business account with them and we noticed they have overcharged us $100 each month for ‘ internet and data’. We already receive a separate account for internet. so why the extra charge? We have approached our ‘telstra representative’ for 4 months. He had promised to contact us each time and each time he has failed. He only contacted us when he wanted our business.
We still have not received a credit for this charge.
I will change providers once our mobiles expire. I hope there is a provider that will look after our needs and not overcharge for a service that doesn’t exist.
Hi dee. Sorry you’ve had such a negative experience with us in recent times. I’ve organised a local specialist team to call you and sort this out. Brendan
I called complaints on Christmas eve 24.12.11 both on the phone to a ( shall i say a person with a hiher pitched voice who i could not understand , then on a blog site with no answer. Call again today 15.1.12
My complaint is that my phone reception and that of 4 other people living in th ehouse showes no signal. go out side and still nothing , then on other occasions the bars are there but every time you try and call out te call fails
I know that the tower and its antenas can be checked for DB output along with angle of antenas. this is what i need to be done and the reception issue is poor.
Even though I have line-of-sight access to my Node B wireless tower just 2.2k away, I accepted the Hi-gain antenna from Telstra (at my cost, of course). This antenna is now fitted to the roof, in plain view of the tower. Yet here it is, in the middle of the frigging day, and I’m dropping out every few minutes. If I were working in customer support at Telstra, I would honestly be ashamed.
In the meantime, I wonder how many dropouts will occur before I can submit this message. Come on Telstra….do something, ANYTHING, but don’t ignore your customers. An article in yesterday’s local paper about Telstra’s failure to provide services was met with no responding comment. How about a bit of fair dinkum honesty about what is going on?
Hi Mick. Can you send me your account details postcode and contact number so I can have someone respond to this after it’s investigated. Thanks
Brendan
Well Brendan, here we are, three days after I provided you with the details you requested, and I’m yet to hear anything. I have not been contacted, I have not had any improvement, I have not wavered from wanted Telstra to extract its collective digit.
To assist with the investigation you claim is being done, let me provide you with the following information of the performance of my internet yesterday:
1000-1050 no connection
1055-1057 no connection
1110-1118 no connection
1150-1213 no connection
1302-1335 no connection
At 1400, when I had used all superlatives to describe Telstra, I went out and returned at 1600 to, you guessed it, no connection – until about 1645.
1700-1830 no connection…turned computer off.
Logged back in at 2030 to no connection.
Service resumed at about 2200, dropped out from 2210 until 2245, then was available for 45 mins. When it dropped out again at 2330, I cannot tell you the language I was using to describe my utter disgust and frustration.
So Brendan, what are you doing? What is ANYONE doing?
Hi Mick, I’m sorry you’ve not had anyone make contact yet. During busy times, case managers can take a few days to get back but more often than not this happens within 24hrs. I have alerted the team involved and asked them to chase this up and make it a priority. Brendan
Hi Mick, I’ve asked the tech people and they said that the good news for this is it should be relieved in next few weeks.
My T Hub has flash player 9 active and needs to be updated to 11 to be able to access some content. How does one go about it? Is the hub separate from the main computer as far as updates go or are they able to be synched? I have tried and been unable to achieve the successful update on the hub. We had software updated on the hub in December which has fixed a few glitches, thankyou.
Hi Dee, The T-Hub has never been compatible with flash.
I had a friend ring on behalf after giving her permission. Here is the story.
I had a mobile account with telstra & decided to forego the mobile as my main phone and get a home phone line. I was told about the bundles which i decided to go on the home reach line as i was intending to get a computer as well. I chose a bundle i think is $98. As i havn’t had the funds to get the computer but have the phone activated i rang up telstra after getting my first bill which was 2 months advance for the whole bundle. I was told that this was a mistake ( i have the ref number and name of person) so she deducted the amount for the whole bundle and only charge a month in advance for phone line. I received my second bill with an amount of the balance of the wrong amount. still getting charged for an internet that i do not even have running or a computer for that matter.
I rang with the concern about the overcharging again , only to be told that even thou my modem is sitting in a box with no computer that i still have to be charged. This person was rude and kept saying you received a credit which didnt’ happen cause of current bill (2nd one after joining) saying previous balance which with what i paid & what is suppose to be owing adds up to wrong amount.
I rang and inquired as a query to sales .. have persons name if required, who told me the only way i can be charged for my internet is when it is activated which means plugged into my wall and following prompts. I do not have a modem plugged into my wall socket or do i have a computer. I cannot see how i can be charged for something i do not have .
Hi James, Sorry to hear your friend is unhappy with the outcome of her recent contact with us. Why don’t you ask her to use this form to send me the details of the issue, her account and contact details and I will have someone call her.
Hi James, I’ve asked for a rep to call you to discuss. Brendan
Hi James, Pleased to hear that Kat has looked after you. I’m here should you need help in the future.